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  ...What will he say next? Let this man speak, and this man only. By applying the habits of a higher style of thought to the common affairs of this world, he introduces beauty and magnificence wherever he goes. Such a power was Burke's, and of this genius we have had some brilliant examples in our own political and legal men.
Imagery. The orator must be, to a certain extent, a poet. We are such imaginative creatures, that nothing so works on the human mind, barbarous or civil, as a trope. Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol and an audience is electrified.   They feel as if they already possessed some new right and power over a fact, which they can detach, and so completely master in thought. It is a wonderful aid to the memory, which carries away the image, and never loses it. A popular assembly, like the House of Commons, or the French Chamber, or the American Congress, is commanded by these two powers,--first by a fact, then by skill of statement. Put the argument into a concrete shape, into an image, some hard phrase, round and solid as...   Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Excerpt from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 11, September, 1858 · This quote is about speakers and speaking · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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